The Dutch State Treasury has gone live on Bloomberg's electronic bond auction system, allocating EUR2.9 billion of three and six month bills within ten minutes.
The event marked the first-time ever that the Dutch State Treasury has used an electronic platform to issue DTC's (T-Bills).
In a statement, the treasury says the system provides a quick, simple and efficient means to distribute its DTC's to the primary dealer group: "The bond auction system was tailored to meet our specific auction requirements and is a great improvement on the previous auction methodology."
"The greatest advantage of the Bloomberg bond auction system for a primary dealer like the Dutch State Treasury, is the speed with which the treasury bills are allocated thereby reducing considerably unhedged risk time. In addition, it provides for the dealer a real-time audit trail of bids," says Gerald Walker, European head of transaction products, Bloomberg.
Other government users of the system include the Bank of England, which went live in January 2001, Belgium, Portugal, Finland, Iceland and South Africa.